Students, scientists team up for anti-smoking campaign

Australian scientists have teamed up with a group of Melbourne high school students to develop an anti-smoking campaign.

Year 10 students from Aquinas College have produced a video looking at the effects molecules, known as free radicals, can have on smokers.

The video will be used in Quit Victoria's anti-smoking education program.

A chemistry professor at Melbourne University, Carl Schiesser, says he is hoping the involvement of students in the campaign inspires them to study science.

"If we can get the students involved in science then they can actually communicate back to their own communities, communicate to their parents, communicate to their schools the sorts of things that they're into and the sorts of things that they're interested in and why they're interested in it," he said.

"Hopefully bring the message across that science is not just for nerds in white coats."